Using dictionaries and analysing data

Quirin Würschinger, LMU Munich

Types of Dictionaries

General Purpose Dictionaries

  • Provide comprehensive linguistic information about words in a single language
    • Spelling, pronunciation, and grammatical classification
    • Multiple meanings and contextual usage examples
    • Etymology and historical development notes
  • Typically monolingual and organised alphabetically for easy reference
  • Valuable for morphological research because they:
    • Document detailed word origins and development
    • Show common usage patterns and variations
    • Provide historical context for word formation

Bilingual and Multilingual Dictionaries

  • Facilitate translation between two or more languages
  • Key features and functions:
    • Support language learning and translation work
    • Help decode meanings across different languages
    • Illustrate cultural and linguistic nuances
  • Important for morphological research by:
    • Enabling cross-linguistic word formation studies
    • Revealing patterns in comparative linguistics
    • Showing how concepts transfer between languages

Specialized Dictionaries

  • Focus on specific aspects of language or technical fields:
    • Etymology and word origins
    • Precise pronunciation guides
    • Technical and discipline-specific terminology
    • Slang and colloquial expressions
  • Particularly valuable for:
    • Detailed academic research in specific fields
    • Understanding technical vocabulary development
    • Tracing specialised word formation patterns

Diachronic and Synchronic Dictionaries

  • Diachronic dictionaries:
    • Track how words change through history
    • Document evolution of meanings and forms
    • Show historical usage patterns and variations
  • Synchronic dictionaries:
    • Focus on language at specific points in time
    • Present contemporary usage and meanings
    • Document current word formation patterns
  • Essential tools for:
    • Historical linguistic research
    • Understanding language evolution
    • Tracking word formation changes over time

Learner’s Dictionaries

  • Specifically designed for language acquisition:
    • Clear, simplified definitions
    • Practical, everyday usage examples
    • Word frequency information
    • Common collocations and phrases
  • Additional features often include:
    • Grammar notes and usage guidelines
    • Cultural context explanations
    • Learning exercises and examples
  • Useful for research into:
    • Common word usage patterns
    • Language acquisition processes
    • Basic word formation principles

Specific Examples of Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

  • Official website: https://www.oed.com/
  • Comprehensive historical dictionary of English by Oxford University Press
  • Considered the authoritative source on English language
  • Key features:
    • Historical approach: traces word development chronologically
    • Extensive quotations: over 3 million citations from wide-ranging sources
    • Comprehensive coverage: 600,000+ words and phrases across 20 volumes
    • Online since 2000; third edition in progress (electronic-only)
  • Value for research:
    • Traces detailed development of word forms and meanings
    • Provides extensive historical context and usage patterns
    • Enables in-depth morphological analysis
    • Documents linguistic patterns and changes over time

Wiktionary

  • Official website: https://www.wiktionary.org/
  • Multilingual, web-based collaborative dictionary
  • Key features:
    • Crowdsourced content with rapid updates
    • Comprehensive and flexible entries for new words
    • Multiple language support with cross-references
    • Detailed etymological information where available
  • Research applications:
    • Neologism and language evolution studies
    • Cross-linguistic research opportunities
    • Contemporary usage patterns
    • Educational tool for language learning and research

Urban Dictionary

  • Official website: https://www.urbandictionary.com/
  • Crowdsourced dictionary focusing on slang and colloquial language
  • Key features:
    • User-generated content reflecting varied interpretations
    • Dynamic tracking of language evolution
    • Rich cultural context and references
    • Multiple definitions showing usage variations
  • Research value:
    • Sociolinguistic studies of contemporary language
    • Tracking emergence and spread of new slang
    • Cultural analysis through language use
    • Understanding informal word formation processes

Other Major Dictionaries

Merriam-Webster Dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/)

  • American English focus
  • Strong etymology coverage
  • Regular updates for contemporary usage
  • Valuable for understanding American English word formation

Collins English Dictionary (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/)

  • Comprehensive vocabulary coverage
  • Strong British English focus
  • Detailed word formation information
  • Includes frequency information and usage trends

Cambridge English Dictionary (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/)

  • Clear definitions and examples
  • Strong learner focus
  • British English emphasis
  • Excellent grammatical information and usage notes

Online Etymology Dictionary (https://www.etymonline.com/)

  • Detailed word history tracking
  • Etymology focus
  • Historical development emphasis
  • Traces morphological changes over time

Practice

  • In pairs, choose one general-purpose dictionary and one specialised dictionary. Compare how they define:
    • a common word (e.g. house): note the word class and any morphological information
    • a technical term (e.g. algorithm): identify derivation and affixation details
    • slang (e.g. selfie): discuss the word-formation process (e.g. blending, clipping)
  • List the types of linguistic information provided in each entry (e.g. morphology, syntax, pronunciation, etymology, usage examples, frequency, collocations)
  • Consult a bilingual dictionary entry for a word of your choice in two different language pairs. Analyse how translation equivalents, word class, and usage notes differ
  • Reflect on which dictionary type best supports analysis of word classes and word-formation processes for your research; prepare a short summary (2–3 sentences)

Applications in Linguistic Research

Historical linguistic analysis:

  • Tracking morphological changes through time
    • e.g. comparing Old English strong verbs to Modern English irregular forms
  • Understanding semantic development
    • e.g. charting the shift of awful from ‘full of awe’ to ‘terrible’
  • Documenting word formation patterns
    • e.g. analyzing the emergence of the prefix cyber- in late 20th century

Comparative linguistics:

  • Cross-linguistic word formation studies
    • e.g. comparing German and English compound nouns (e.g. de. Zahnarzt vs en. tooth doctor)
  • Analysis of borrowing patterns
    • e.g. tracing French loanwords (e.g. cuisine, ballet) into English after the Norman Conquest
  • Understanding morphological universals
    • e.g. investigating prefixation productivity across unrelated languages (e.g. ge- in German, en- in English)

Contemporary language research:

  • Neologism studies and word creation
    • e.g. investigating the rise of selfie and meme via social media corpora
  • Sociolinguistic variation
    • e.g. examining morphological variation in teenage text messaging (e.g. abbreviations like u for you)
  • Internet-influenced language change
    • e.g. analyzing adoption of acronyms (e.g. lol, brb) in spoken and written registers

Methodological applications:

  • Diachronic studies of word formation
  • Quantitative analysis of lexical change over time
  • Corpus-based validation of dictionary entries
  • Tracking the adoption of loanwords and neologisms
  • Identifying gaps or biases in dictionary coverage
  • Supporting computational linguistics and NLP tasks (e.g. lemmatisation, part-of-speech tagging)
  • Informing the design of new dictionaries and lexical resources

Practise using the OED

Using the OED’s Advanced Search:

  • find all terms that are marked as obsolete
  • sort them by Date (newest first)
  • export the results as a CSV file

Using Microsoft Excel:

  1. open the CSV file
  2. save the file as an Excel file (.xlsx extension)
  3. convert the exported rows/columns to a Table
  4. create Pivot Tables to analyse the data
  5. create Pivot Charts to visualise the data

Model Excel file: https://1drv.ms/x/c/9a2ec97d593520f9/EaLL88w43gZCrHEXDYO5Qa0BRPZiuRcROamaxi4AJhFTsg

Analysis objectives:

  1. How many terms are marked as obsolete across the whole OED?
  2. What are the most common word classes of obsolete terms?
  3. What are the most common word-formation processes?
  4. What are the most common subjects?